Honesty...

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My friend April tweeted yesterday about blogging.  More specifically, she talked about bloggers replying to their comments especially if the comments are fewer.  This statement launched a conversation about how I agreed and how blogging can be used to cultivate rich, wonderful relationships and one comment is how it all begins.  After agreeing, I expressed my sadness over having gone private with my other blog which is a family blog I started in 2008 after Josh and I got married.

It was fun to chronicle our adventures as newly weds, my pregnancy with J and J's first few months.  Before I even announced I was pregnant with E on that blog, I went private.  My followers there had grown from my Mom and Grandma to friends, family and strangers alike and I had put out more information than I felt comfortable sharing.  After years of posting, it was too late to go back and edit and I didn't want to wipe out the past posts as the blog had also become an ongoing monologue of our family's adventures, trials, and other life happenings.

I've continued to blog on our family's blog here and there, but the creativity in posting and the desire to seek my blog as a place to express my frustrations or our triumphs became less.  This is partially due to the community I lost in going private.  A few people can still read and do.  These people are the best friends I've made in the blogging community and I love that I can still read their blogs and they can read mine and we can stay caught up in each other's lives.  I love those relationships and the snail mail exchanged, the care packages sent, the text messages shared... I love that those relationships with those women have become real and I can call them all my friends.  But I do miss being part of the community.

When you're public and you post about a stressful day as a stay at home Mom, you generally get encouragement.  When you post about how your baby just crawled for the first time, you have echoes of cheering join you in your celebrations.  When you post about how you're just not sure if you're doing this or that right and you need help, people are willing to offer their suggestions and their encouragement.  There's a lot of good things about being a public blogger.

And that's why I started this blog.  It was a fresh start; a clean slate.

And now I'm here blogging in this blog and I'm a little unsure of what to do with myself.  My original intent was to simply use the blog as a creative outlet, but I'm not creative often enough to keep up with posting.  I know there's nothing wrong with turning this blog into another family-type blog either and that thought can be appealing because it means meeting even more blog friends, especially other Moms.  But how important is that?  I love the friends I've met through blogging but should most of my time be spent on these Internet relationships or should I put this desire for these relationships aside and focus on real relationship forming with my friends here in my real life?

And clearly, by submitting this post of story and questioning and by asking for your opinions on blogging and how important these Internet relationships are vs. real life relationships, I'm making this blog (at least in this post) less creative and more personal and that's ok.  Maybe sometimes that's just what I need.

Thanks for listening. :)

P.S. My amazing friends I met through blogging are: Caroline, Melissa, Liz, Allison & Krysten.  There's also Maegan who is a great online friend, but she no longer blogs publicly either.

Grandma T's Cream of Chicken Noodle Soup

Today I posted this picture on my Instagram feed and it got a lot of love from my online friends.  I gave out the recipe here, but it's so simple and delicious I thought I'd come over here and share it too!  We've been a sick house here lately and although we're all on the up and up, there's a lot of congestion.  So, despite it being 100 degrees out, soup seemed like a great lunch for the boys and me today!

Josh taught me how to make this soup so I take no credit.  It's what his Mom made him when he was sick and what he makes us now.  I just learned how to make it this last year.  It's simple, but comforting and delicious.

Ingredients:
1/2 bag no yolk egg noodles
2 cans Healthy Choice (reduced fat) cream of chicken (or normal... Josh likes the normal kind)
1 cup milk (I use 1%)
1 cup water
salt
pepper


Cook up half a bag of no yolk egg noodles.  While they're cooking whisk together two cans of cream of chicken soup, the 1 cup milk, and 1 cup water.  Keep it on low heat so milk doesn't boil and let it all heat up and get friendly.  When you drain your water and add the noodles back to your pan, pour in your creamy soup and stir.  Add salt and pepper to taste and voila, you have what I call Grandma T's cream of chicken noodle soup!

J, who is almost 2, ate 2 (toddler sized) bowls of this soup for lunch today so it's definitely a favorite among small children!  This amount serves two adult sized people and is 11 Weight Watchers points a serving.  And it only takes about 10 minutes to make.  Bon appetite!

P.S. I like this soup w/ a lot of pepper and a few saltines and Josh likes it with Ritz crackers.  :)

Pin Review: Cheesy Enchilada Casserole

I pinned this casserole awhile ago and shortly thereafter my good blog friend Melissa commented on the pin and said her family had made it and loved it.  And then I waited a really long time to make it because life happens and I was changing things up much.  But now, I am!  I made 3 new recipes just last week and this by far was our FAVORITE of all.  It was so yummy I got the ingredients to make it again this week.  I also didn't take a picture of my casserole because I was too busy stuffing my face so the photo credit goes to Jonna.

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When I first penned this casserole onto our menu I knew I had to figure up the points plus values then for Weight Watcher purposes or I'd cook it and have a "meh!" moment where I mentally declared it to be 5 points for half the dish (just kidding - kind of!).  The whole casserole was a lot of points so I immediately halved it and resolved to bake it into a 8x8 dish.  I then made some minor modifications that brought the total down to 10 points per 1/4th of an 8x8 casserole OR 7 points for 1/6th of a 9x13 casserole.  You could lighten it up even more by using a fat free cheese, but I just can't bring myself to enjoy fat free cheese so I use the real stuff.  You could also use less cheese but I don't because cheese is yummy.  And healthy.  Right?

So the modified recipe is...

1/2lb lean ground beef
1/3 onion finely chopped
1 1/4 cup salsa
1/2 can kidney beans (drained)
1/8 cup italian dressing
1T taco seasoning
1/8t cumin
2 low fat (I use Mission) flour tortillas (corn would also be less and you could use more)
1/2 can of corn
1/4 cup sour cream (light)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

For cooking instructions I'd like to refer you back to Jonna's site so I'm not hoarding the recipe here, but again, I'd like to stress this is indeed very, very good!

So this pin is definitely two thumbs up!  Thank you, Pinterest!  And Jonna!

Oh, and also, my almost-2-year-old loved this too and it was not too spicy for him.  A meal an almost-2-year-old inhales that isn't pizza or chicken nuggets is always a win in my book!

5 Things I'm Loving Right Now!

So this is my first official link up on this blog! I've done link ups in the past on a different blog and always, always enjoyed them because people give such fun prompts or directions for a post which makes for easy, breezy, fun writing!  Perfect for a Monday!  So without further ado, I give you 5 things I'm loving right now which is linking back to Julie's blog.

5. "Live Simply" 
This has been my mantra lately.  It is so easy to find ways to be discontent.  I love to cook, clean, decorate and organize but these things aren't my daily reality.  Especially the decorating because that requires more funding than I have.  So when I find myself feeling edgy and unable to do a project or in want of a second car when I know we can't afford that right now, I remind myself, "live simply," and think about how people have made due for generations without spending loads of money at a time to accomplish everything they want to be accomplishing... you know?  And one day when I have some money put aside, I will order this from Etsy and hang it front and center in my home!

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2.  All this cute Patriot door decor.
I've never been one to decorate much for any holiday aside from Christmas (mostly due to not having the resources), but this year I'm just in love with all these beautiful, Patriotic wreaths.  I wish I had had more time to construct one for our door!  Next year it's a must!

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3. This idea of writing journals to give to your children one day.  
I heard this idea as a teenager in regards to keeping a journal to give to your future husband and loved the idea.  I started one when I was seventeen and presented it to Josh when we got married.  It was full of little letters here and there and prayers I had written over him at different times as well as my hopes and dreams.  The same thing would be great for kids and I'd love to get started soon since they're already almost 2 and 8 months!

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4. Bloom! 
It seems like everyone is already reading Kelle's blog (if you're not, you should check it out - it's beautiful and inspiring).  I've read since Nella's birth story was published which happened to be when I was pregnant with J.  I think every Mom-to-be worries about every little thing that could go wrong but her honesty in her struggle really helped ease my own worries and fears.  Now I'm reading her memoir and am over half way through.  It is funny, emotional, and inspiring.

5. Weight Watchers, and more importantly, my Weight Watchers support group!  
I've mentioned before that I'm on WW (see my about me).  I started in December and have lost 28lbs.  It feels so, so good.  I love the program and the meetings, but most of all I love the community of women I've met on Twitter who have helped inspire me, hold me accountable, and encourage me every step of the way.  You can find me on Twitter here (@mynestinstincts).  Feel free to join us if you're on Weight Watchers and need encouragement!  Our hashtag is #wwladies (or go here) and we'd love to help you and be helped by you!

Thanks again, Julie, for such a fun posting prompt! :)

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